leadership development

Tips for successful leadership development

Excellent leaders aren’t born that way, they are made. Leadership development is considered a smart investment in the future of an organisation. A well-led company values the same skills in its managers, and this in turn motivates employees.

Learning leadership skills is necessary for any manager, no matter how successful they might already be in their current position. Leading is not the same as managing. A different skill-set is required to take a manager or team supervisor to the next level.

Key tasks as a manager are planning, budgeting and personnel and performance management. Doing well in these areas is not an indication of leadership potential. Leadership development will occur at transitional points in a career. It is when they move into the next role that people either learn to lead or fail.

The key factor in leadership is followers. A new role isn’t necessarily a new position. It could be the taking on of a new project, an assignment or a change due to an unexpected crisis faced by the company or the department.

The opportunity at this transitional point is to take others along, and motivate followers to achieve a goal. To do this requires the support, co-operation and commitment of the people being lead to move in a new direction.

There are always obstacles in the way to achieving these goals. The leader needs to motivate followers to overcome these obstacles.

That’s three essential components towards learning leadership. A change in circumstances, new goals to achieve and followers to achieve those goals.

Challenges faced by aspiring leaders include selling ideas, communicating, delegating and the use of social skills such as empathy and mentoring. It is also crucial to be able to develop informal networks outside of existing areas.

These networks are necessary support mechanisms to help when transitional points suddenly appear, such as a major crisis or market shift. These occasions require creative thinking in order to achieve desired goals. And only those successful at leadership development can make that leap.